Dragline Mining System for Energy Reduction and Cost Efficiency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Open pit mining faces challenges with high energy consumption and costs due to the need for specialized trucks and haulage ramps, which become economically burdensome with falling mineral prices, leading to mine closures and deferred projects.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system where a primary lifting machine, such as a dragline or crane, removes both overburden and valuable material from the pit, eliminating the need for haulage ramps and specialized trucks, and using haulage bridges and long-distance hauling trucks or conveyor systems for efficient material transport.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If specialized trucks and haulage ramps are used to transport valuable material from the open pit, then the material can be transported out of the pit, but energy consumption and costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the functions of overburden removal and valuable material extraction into a single dragline operation. The dragline excavates both overburden and coal, eliminating the need for separate truck-based haulage systems. This merging of functions reduces energy consumption while maintaining productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the haulage ramps and specialized truck infrastructure from the mining system. By removing these energy-intensive components and replacing them with a dragline-based system, the patent eliminates the associated energy consumption and costs while preserving the core function of material removal.
2Ease of operation
If haulage ramps are constructed to allow trucks to access the pit floor, then trucks can transport material out of the pit, but the system complexity and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the complex haulage ramp infrastructure and specialized truck system from the mining operation. By extracting these components and replacing them with a simpler dragline-based extraction system, the patent reduces overall system complexity while maintaining the ability to remove material from the pit.
Solution Approach 2:
The dragline serves multiple functions: it removes overburden, extracts valuable coal material, and eliminates the need for separate haulage infrastructure. This multi-functionality simplifies the overall system by replacing multiple specialized components with a single versatile machine.
3Productivity
If specialized off-road trucks with high power engines are used to traverse the pit floor and transport material up ramps, then material transport is enabled, but energy consumption and operational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the extraction and initial removal functions into the dragline operation itself. By combining these functions, the system eliminates the need for high-power truck engines and reduces energy loss associated with transporting material up ramps, while maintaining the productivity of material removal.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using trucks to lift material up ramps from the pit floor, the patent inverts the approach by using a dragline to lift and remove material directly from the pit. This inversion eliminates the energy loss associated with ramp traversal and truck-based transport.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to an open pit mining system. The system includes a material lifting machine configured to both: (1) excavate and remove overburden from an open pit of a mine; and (2) excavate and remove valuable material from the open pit. Advantageously, the machine removes the overburden waste material as well as the mined valuable material which would otherwise be conventionally removed by trucks in the pit, out of the pit up the ramps and then onto the processing plant. Accordingly, the use of trucks for transporting valuable material both along and up out of the pit is at least to some extent reduced thereby resulting in improved cost and energy efficiency.